Sarah K. Lucas

Sarah K. Lucas is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Syracuse University. Her research investigates how microbial communities influence human health and disease, with particular focus on bacteriophage ecology, anaerobic microbiology, and mucosal microbiome dynamics. Lucas combines wet-lab techniques with computational approaches to study microbial interactions in chronic infections, colorectal cancer, and inflammatory conditions.

Current projects examine bacteriophage roles in microbiome regulation, mucin degradation pathways in chronic sinusitis, and microbial biomarkers for disease. She develops analytical methods for microbial metabolite quantification and reproducible bioinformatic workflows.

Lucas serves as a certified instructor with The Carpentries and teaches courses in microbiomes in biotechnology/medicine, research methods, and thesis development. Her work integrates experimental microbiology with multi-omic analyses to understand host-microbe interactions at mucosal surfaces.